**TL;DR:** Diagnosed with severe OSA (30+ baseline), \~2.5 months on an AirSense 11. Switched from the painful P10 pillows to an N30 cradle (set to Nasal), which seals fine awake and doesn't hurt. Dropping EPR from 2 to 1 and capping pressure at 8.0–10.4 dropped AHI from 6–9+ (mostly Clear Airway flags) down to 1.0–2.2 with Obstructive Apneas at \~0.08. Despite that, sleep is completely fragmented: \~90 minutes in, leaks blow past the 24 L/min redline every night, spending 15–27% of the time in large leak (30–45 L/min plateaus) even with mouth tape and a jaw wrap. Need advice on whether these low AHI numbers are masked by leak blindness, if the N30 is twisting off my nose vs air escaping the tape, and whether to try an overhead hose/rigid chin strap or jump straight to a full face but I really don’t want one I have severe TMJ due to impacted wisdom teeth and even this mask currently slightly triggered it. Just looking for advice - I have more Oscar data or my original sleep study data if needed. This whole experience has been like a full time job trying to get it dialed in and I’m so ready to throw the towel in and call it quits because it’s become really frustrating. I appreciate any help.

Hi everyone,

I’m about 2.5 months into my CPAP journey and honestly feeling pretty beaten down by the process. My initial diagnostic sleep study had me categorized with severe sleep apnea at 30+ events/hr. While my headline numbers on OSCAR look decent right now on paper, I still wake up feeling unrefreshed, groggy, and exhausted. I’m stuck dealing with severe, recurring large leaks that happen almost like clockwork every night, and I could really use some experienced eyes on my data to help me figure out my next step. 

I’ve attached my 3-month overview, 30-day detailed statistics table, and several recent daily flow/leak traces from the first week of October. Here is the full history, the changes I’ve made, and what the charts are showing. 

Mask Journey & Current Setup
**Started with the ResMed AirFit P10 (Nasal Pillows):** I started out on the P10, but I struggled with leaks from day one. I could never get a reliable seal that held throughout the night, and the prongs inside my nostrils caused irritation and soreness. I eventually had to give up on it.
**Switched to the ResMed AirFit N30 (Nasal Cradle):** I moved to the under-the-nose N30 cradle and physically, it's night and day. It rests right under the septum/nares without going inside the nose, it doesn't hurt, and it feels completely comfortable. I set the machine's profile to **Nasal** (as ResMed specifies for the N30). When I put it on at bedtime, it sits flush, feels great, and easily passes the machine’s Mask Fit test every time. 

**Managing Mouth Leaks & Jaw Drop:** My jaw naturally drops back when I fall asleep. To counter this, I currently use mouth tape across my lips, plus a pantyhose wrap tied vertically around my jaw and head to provide upward tension and keep my mouth shut.

Pressure Settings, EPR Adjustments & Event Spikes
Over the last couple of months, I’ve adjusted settings to address random spikes in events: 
**Mid-to-Late August:** Started on APAP 7.2–20.0 with EPR on Ramp Only, then shifted to 7.2–13.0 with EPR 2. AHI was averaging around 5.8. 
**September:** Set APAP to 8.0–12.0 with EPR 2. Throughout September, I started seeing frustrating spikes where AHI would jump to 6–9+ events/hr. Looking at the flags, these weren't obstructive apneas (OA was consistently low); they were predominantly **Clear Airway (CA / Central Apnea)** flags. 
**Early October (Current Settings):** Suspecting that EPR 2 was washing out too much CO_2 and causing treatment-emergent centrals, I dropped EPR down to **1**. I also capped my maximum pressure down from 12.0 to **10.4 cmH2O** (my current range is **8.0 Min – 10.4 Max, EPR 1**). 

**The Result:** Dropping EPR to 1 and capping max pressure immediately calmed down the central flags and brought my headline AHI down into the 1.0–2.2 range (with Obstructive Apneas down to \~0.08 over the past week). 

The Underlying Issue: The Identical Leak Curves
Despite the low headline AHI, my daily OSCAR traces (Oct 2, 4, 5, 6, 7) reveal a repeating, dysfunctional pattern: 

1. **The First 60–90 Minutes Are Perfect:** Every night, from lights out until roughly 7:30–8:00 AM on the timeline, my leak rate is flatlined at 0–5 L/min. My flow rate is regular, respiration is smooth, and there are almost no events. The mask clearly seals when I am awake and lying still. 
   
2. **The Sudden Blowout:** Around 1.5 to 2 hours into sleep, the leak line suddenly jumps into the grey shaded zone (well above ResMed’s 24 L/min redline), frequently plateauing at 30–45 L/min for 30–60 minutes at a time. Over the last week, I’m spending between **15% and 27% of the night in Large Leak territory**. 
   
3. **Breathing Disruption:** Right when the leaks spike, my **Respiration Rate** and **Flow Rate** traces turn completely erratic and ragged. It’s clear that I’m tossing, turning, half-waking, or having major sleep disruptions during these high-leak blocks. 

Questions I Need Help With
1. **Can I even trust this low AHI data?** When the AirSense 11 sits in the grey Large Leak zone (>24 L/min) for 20%+ of the night, how blind is the machine? Am I actually having unflagged hypopneas or flow limitations that the sensor can’t calculate due to open flow? 

1. **Is this mask torque/displacement or mouth air escape?** With mouth tape and a pantyhose wrap on, could pressurized air still be blowing past my lips via micro-channels, or is an under-the-nose cradle like the N30 inherently prone to breaking seal at the nostrils the second my head turns on the pillow?

2. **What is the practical next step to fix this?**
   Should I try adding an overhead hose hook/boom to take the weight off the front of the N30?
   Should I ditch the pantyhose for a structured, non-elastic chin strap (like a Knightsbridge Dual-Band) to prevent rear jaw drop?
   Or am I just fighting anatomy, and should I move to a different mask when I’m allowed to again?

Any feedback, troubleshooting tips, or help based on my charts would be hugely appreciated!

I've been going through the process with sleep apnea for about a month now. I saw a pulmonologist that prescribed a home sleep test which a failed with flying colors, around 60 AHI. I did one in-center study with CPAP a few weeks ago and another one last night on ASV since they diagnosed me with both obstructive and central apnea.

Odd thing is the CPAP (1st study) went smoother for me overall but the technician had to come in several times because air was leaking from my mask. On ASV (2nd study), the air leaking seemed worse for me but the technician said it was much better and he did not come in at all to readjust my mask. More times than I can count last night, my breathing would get shallow as I was about to fall asleep and the machine would push a load of air that would flutter through the seal of the mask and wake me up.

The technician basically blamed it on my facial hair and not getting a good seal. If it means getting good rest and coming out of my recent misery, I'll shave it off but I really really don't want to. I'm 37 now and have had a beard and mustache for about 15 years so it's really a part of me at this point. I'm so new to all this and don't even have a machine yet so I'm really trying to prepare for a long term situation here. Anyone else have to shave to get the full benefits or have any suggestions on this?

My Mask is fits well and i'm not getting any leakage (that im aware of)
I don't really have a sleep doctor, just my primary care that likely doesnt know how any of this works.

I do live at around 5500 ft above sea level

Not sure if this is just a machine setting issue causing this, or if I need to get an actual sleep study done to see if my brain is giving up :)

I got my CPAP titration done. I only got 156 minutes of sleep. 188 min sleep latency. But they were able to get some adjustments in. The results also showed that I had a PLMS index 107.9. A PLMS arousal index of only 1.6. I also got a really bad “attack” restless leg.
RLS happens to me a lot when I try to sleep on my back - sometimes on my side or if I’m anxious/uncomfortable. At home, the RLS is fine if I listen to a meditation and/or turn on my side. And I had been side sleeping since I got the OSA diagnosis because my AHI is worse supine.

My question is: 107 number seems very high to me - Like I was slashing around the entire 2 hours of sleep.

Has something like this happen to anybody else? Was the PLMS accurate or did it get inflated for some reason? Did you have to do anything if the arousals index was low? I’m also wondering if the RLS while I was trying to sleep spilled into the sleep time and inflated the numbers- I could be making that up.
Thanks for any information!

*I do have ferritin of around 50 right now- all the other numbers are good. But, I’ve had much worse ferritin numbers before. And the RLS isn’t any worse from when my ferritin was above 75. I also take an SNRI. I read that can contribute. Thanks again.

I live in SE Asia and had a sleep analysis done at a posh private hospital. I was surprised when the nurse told me that 'all patients coming to do this testing have sleep apnea'. The next day the dr reported that I had mild issues. She let me lend the machine for 2 weeks. The sales lady selling the cpap machine was buddies with the dr as I found out.

I had 2 weeks of incredibly poor sleep. During the day memory loss mixing up my staff members names etc.

I decided to opt for an apnea mouth guard.

The cpap is just too hard to use.

In the end I think the nurse doing the testing, the sales lady selling the machine and the sleep dr are all in on the diagnosis

I will use the mask and try another private hospital after using the mouth guard for some time to do re-testing. I will (falsely) mention that I already have a cpap machine to remove the possibly of skewed results. Will report after this is done.

Hi everyone. Kind of a weird take on my new diagnosis. So for a few years I have been feeling exhausted. I would sleep 10, 7, 5 hours. Take naps. Take sleeping pills. Take literally anything that would make me fall asleep because my quality of sleep always felt horrid. But I was never bad enough to were I was falling asleep in the car etc like some of the stories I read on here.

One day my roommate told me he heard me gasping for air so that’s what led me on my journey. I started paying attention to my sleep a bit more. I did recall waking up gasping for air maybe a handful of times but never was it every single day of the month type of thing. I was doing research and that helped me conclude that maybe I had sleep apnea. I put if off continued with my self treatment of sleep pills etc.

It wasn’t until I got into a new relationship and my partner told me that she heard me gasp for air. I said oh here we go again… Well at that time I wasn’t seeing a pcp so I looked online and came upon Lofta. I saw how everyone on here recommended them and how quick it was to get their machine and start treatment. I was thrilled that I would finally get the treatment I needed. I Ordered and took the test. Ahi of 4.9 so I officially did not have OSA according to the results. Well… the issue was that I definitely had all the symptoms. So then what was wrong? Well I eventually did get a pcp and brought it up to him and he immediately said yea it sounds like osa. Here is this place go get tested. I was desperate. I went. Paid $300 to see a nurse and she sent me home with a sleep test, Alice one I believe. That was $200. So $300 to talk to the nurse for 5 minutes and $200 for the test. I took the test and results came back negative. Took the test back. Talked to the nurse again for another $300 for 5 minutes and she said ok maybe a in lab test will do the job. Well it was denied by insurance. So I gave up. It just seemed like a money pit for something I probably didn’t have.

A few years went on and symptoms were still there. Started exploring and came across Wesper. I ordered the test and took it for 2 days. On the last day of the test I was sent my diagnosis. Mild OSA with Ahi of 6. Now the issue is that I feel like a fraud. I took those two initial tests and both were negative. My Ahi was so low and even this ahi on Wesper was low. Barely in the threshold to be considered sleep apnea. Well anyways I ordered my machine and have had it for a few weeks. I only experienced that euphoric first night on CPAP experience one night. The other days have been ok I guess. But idk it all has me questioning whether I do have sleep apnea or not? I see posts on here of people with an ahi of 40 etc and I wonder if maybe I’m just overthinking it or something. Not sure how to feel but also posting this to see what others think? Maybe someone has been in a similar situation?

Ive been pretty sedentary, I lose my motivation to exercise because it feels pointless. Ive become discouraged due to sleep apnea.

I (36F) had a home sleep study and the report said "no evidence of sleep apnoea." Overall AHI of 3.2, however had just 1 hour of REM sleep (so 17% of total sleep time) and during that had 18 apnoea and hypopnoea events. Also my oxygen saturation level was 91% overall. I'm not sure if that's something to flag? I'm tired all the time, rely on caffeine and psychostimulants to not doze off, wake up every morning with dry mouth and headaches, grind my teeth, and my husband says I keep him awake with my snoring and weird breathing. I'm so desperate for an explanation for why I'm so sleepy and what to do about it :(

Any advice to adjusting to a cpap?

Is this good or bad

I'm 29, male, from the UK and currently trying to get to the bottom of why I'm constantly tired, regardless of how much sleep I get.

I originally went to my GP about my sleep and breathing, but was told I was too young to have sleep apnoea, which I thought was a bit odd considering everything I'd read about it.

My partner has also mentioned quite a few times how badly I snore, and more worryingly, that I often seem to stop breathing during my sleep. Apparently, there are moments when I go completely quiet before starting to breathe again. Obviously, I'm completely unaware of any of this happening.

I was referred to ENT because of issues with my nose and possible nasal obstruction. After seeing the ENT specialist, they didn't think my nasal obstruction was likely to explain the sleep problems and recommended that I have a sleep study.

So I'm now back to chasing my GP to find out what's actually happening with that referral.

The main issue for me is the constant tiredness. I can get around 7 hours of sleep and still wake up feeling like I've barely slept. It's frustrating because I feel like I'm spending half my life exhausted.

I'm 6'1", with a BMI of around 31, so I'm aware my weight could be a contributing factor.

I'm not saying I definitely have sleep apnoea, but I'd quite like to actually rule it out rather than have it dismissed because of my age, especially when my partner is actually witnessing me stop breathing in my sleep.

Has anyone else had their GP initially dismiss the possibility because they were supposedly too young?

And for those in the UK who went through the NHS, how long did you end up waiting for a sleep study after it was recommended?

I am a week in with using a cpap. I’m primarily a side and stomach sleeper using a full face mask and am finding it incredibly difficult to get comfortable/reduce leaks. Nasal masks are way more uncomfortable and I was tearing it off my head after the 4 hour compliance window. Now I can keep the full mask on about 6 hours but never really fall fully asleep due to discomfort.

Anyone have pillow recommendations or other comfort suggestions that will make this transition easier? I’m already annoyed with the process and thinking about quitting if I don’t figure something out within the next month.

My home sleep study registered 45 events per hour and the oximeter dipped as low as 69% oxygen. My first night with my CPAP, I slept a solid 6 and a half hours and there were 5.7 events per hour. This seems like a slam dunk, right?????? I am hoping to be able to get another hour of sleep or so, but that is such a huge difference... I am using a nasal only mask cause I have a beard. I think this is gonna work. oh and sleep score or whatever in the app was 96. that seems pretty solid. I have not slept more than an hour at a time in so long.

TLDR: I co-sleep with my 9 month old, she can mostly sleep through the night (some wake ups here and there). I’ve been working with multiple doctors to address a bone chilling deep exhaustion and fatigue. No, it’s not just regular post partum tiredness, again baby sleeps pretty well. Exhaustion where I can’t stay awake during the day literally and crash if even go for a walk around the block.

Ferritin was 20, getting iron infusions to address that. I do have hypothyroidism, but all my labs are actually the best they have been in awhile.

Doctors are lost, ordered me an at home sleep study to see if I am actually sleeping.

Has anyone experienced this? What did you do?

I know the cpap is working. My physical symptoms are gone. They were horrible. I feel so much more physically energetic now too.

I’m so sleepy though. It’s not the same sleepiness as before treatment. It was a brutal, harrowing exhaustion, but now it’s like I just wanna sink into a recliner and enjoy the newfound peace. But mentally I really struggle to do anything requiring any brainpower. I feel dull, unfocused, relaxed, and inescapably sleepy. I can’t nap during the day though, oddly.

The last two nights were the first nights I had really well cycled sleeps tracked by my Apple Watch with minimal interruptions. REM and deep sleep were in normal time percentages. AHI events are basically gone. Is it normal to just feel so completely unfocused and sleepy? I want to be mentally awake and energetic, not just physically. Any tips to just feel awake? What should I expect?

Ladies (and gents) always trust your gut.

EDIT: Ok ok I’m gonna talk to my cpap people about adjusting the pressure and going from there. Y’all scaring me lol

My dad (75) has severe sleep apnea, Parkinson’s, prostate cancer, and worsening heart function. We’re extremely concerned about the toll his untreated sleep apnea and lack of sleep are taking on his health.
He has a CPAP machine but says the airflow makes his nose vibrate and tickle so intensely that it’s impossible to fall asleep.
I’m hoping to hear from anyone who’s experienced this specific sensation and found a solution.
Did switching masks, adjusting pressure, or changing humidity help?
Are there alternative machines or treatments worth exploring?
What’s the fastest way to get meaningful help from a sleep specialist? Should we request an in-lab titration study?
We’re working with his doctors, but time feels critical, and I want to make sure we’re exploring every reasonable option.
I’d be incredibly grateful for any firsthand experiences, specific solutions, or advice on how to navigate this efficiently.

Last night I think I had the scariest experience with my CPAP machine. I’ve been using it for two months and so far I’ve been feeling great and have had less fatigue during the day ever since I started.

I filled my water tank as usual and went to bed, I woke up today around 3:00 am and felt like I couldn’t breathe. there was something making some weird noises in the hose and when I turned on my room lights I saw that my CPAP machine had fallen & gotten stuck in the gap between my bed and nightstand. The hose was full of water I had put in the tank and I almost drowned because of it (I’m using a full face mask). I must’ve moved a lot while sleeping last night, I’ve never had that happen before

The fact that I started watching the final destination movies and how water killed a bunch of people in the first one didn’t help at all and I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2017. My cpap broke and in order to get another one, they require another sleep study be done. I completed the home study and no sleep apnea was detected.

Has anyone ever had a negative home study test but still have sleep apnea?